History
Western Montana was originally inhabited by the Salish, Kootenai, Shoshone, Flathead, and Kalispel people. In the late 19th century white people arrived and established mines and cities in the mountains and valleys.
Gold was discovered in Last Chance Gulch in the 1860s and soon the city of Helena was born. Today Helena is the State capitol of Montana. Helena still has much of the charm of a 19th century mining town. Many of the old buildings have been renovated and hundreds of 19th century Victorian homes and mansions fill Helena's old neighborhoods. Helena is one of the best preserved mining towns on the Western frontier. Copper was discovered In Butte and the surrounding areas in the 1870s. Vast quantities of copper were mined, leaving behind the largest Superfund clean up site in the history of the nation. Copper is still mined at Berkeley Pit in Butte. Missoula is the largest city in Western Montana and the second-largest in the state after Billings.
Western Montana though faring better than much of the nation is still the portion of the state hit hardest by the current economic downturn. Places like Missoula have been hit hard with the devastation of its timber industry. The closing of the Smurfit Stone's Mill in 2009 alone is expected to cause the loss of over 2000 jobs through 2012. Missoula has lost some of its retail base with the loss of major nation retailers such as Macys. Much of western Montana has felt the effects of a housing bust as well.
Read more about this topic: Western Montana
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)